Security Advisories

Backdrop CMS doesn't sufficiently sanitize certain interface text when adding links to existing content.

This vulnerability is mitigated by the fact that an attacker must have a role with permission to create content (nodes), files, user accounts, taxonomy terms, views, or layouts.

This module provides a very simple, mobile-friendly navigation toolbar.

The module doesn't sufficiently check for user-provided input.

This vulnerability is mitigated by the fact that an attacker must have the ability to post content using a text format (like the default "Filtered HTML" format) that won't filter out the exploit code.

Backdrop core's Form API has a vulnerability where certain forms in contributed or custom modules may be vulnerable to improper input validation. This could allow an attacker to inject disallowed values or overwrite data. Affected forms are uncommon, but in certain cases an attacker could alter critical or sensitive data.

The colorbox module is a light-weight, customizable lightbox plugin for jQuery that allows images or content can be displayed in a popup or modal "lightbox" above the current page.

Colorbox did not sufficiently sanitize urls, captions, or the title attribute in some situations.

This vulnerability is mitigated by the fact that your site must have enabled the Colorbox feature to use captions, title attributes, and/or external URLs in order to have been at risk. Additionally, an attacker must have had access to an unsanitized text format, or a format that was otherwise adapted to allow the use of colorboxes.

There will be no additional Backdrop release today. The version of jQuery UI included in Backdrop CMS is up to date as of the latest Backdrop release, version 1.21.0, out January 15th, 2022.

Earlier versions of Backdrop core did not use the parts of the jQuery UI library that were affected by the following vulnerabilities. It is possible that they may still be exploitable with  contributed modules if they were to use those parts of the jQuery UI library. There are no known instances of this happening.

jQuery UI is a third-party library included in Backdrop CMS. This library was previously thought to be end-of-life.

Late in 2021, jQuery UI announced that they would be continuing development, and released a jQuery UI 1.13.0 version. As part of this 1.13.0 update, they disclosed the following security issues that may affect Backdrop sites that have not yet updated to 1.21.0:

• CVE-2021-41182: XSS in the altField option of the Datepicker widget
• CVE-2021-41183: XSS in *Text options of the Datepicker widget
• CVE-2021-41183: XSS in the of option of the .position() util

Note: All other vulnerabilities that were previously unaddressed in the version of jQuery UI included in Drupal 7 do not effect any version of Backdrop CMS.

The Backdrop CMS project uses the CKEditor library for WYSIWYG editing. CKEditor has released a security update that impacts Backdrop, along with a hotfix for that update.

Vulnerabilities are possible if Backdrop is configured to allow use of the CKEditor library for Rich-Text editing. An attacker that can create or edit content (even without access to the Editor themselves) may be able to exploit one or more Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities to target other people who do have access to the Rich-Text Editor, including site admins with privileged access.

For more information, see CKEditor's security advisories.

The Backdrop project uses the CKEditor library for Rich-Text editing. CKEditor has released a security update that impacts Backdrop.

Vulnerabilities are possible if Backdrop remains configured to use the CKEditor library for Rich-Text editing. 

An attacker that can enter or edit content as formatted text (even without access to Rich-Text editor themselves) may be able to exploit one or more Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities to target other people who have permission to use the Rich-Text editor on the same content, including site admins with privileged access.

If you're using the fakeobjects CKEditor plugin (not included with core) you will also want to update this.

The Backdrop Security Team will be coordinating a security release for Backdrop 1.19 and 1.18 this week on Thursday, August 12, 2021. 

We are issuing this PSA in advance because August 12, 2021 is not a security window in the regular Drupal security release window schedule, and since we coordinate security releases with Drupal, there would not normally be any security release on this date.

The Backdrop core release will be made between 16:00 – 22:00 UTC (noon – 6:00pm EDT). It is rated as moderately critical and will be an update to a vendor library only.

The Backdrop project uses the pear Archive_Tar library, which has released a security update that impacts Backdrop.

The vulnerability is mitigated by the fact that Backdrop core's use of the Archive_Tar library is not vulnerable, as it does not permit symlinks. Backdrop also does not use Archive_Tar in normal operation of the site, but maintains it for compatibility with contrib modules and custom code.

Exploitation may be possible if contrib or custom code uses the library to extract tar archives (for example .tar, .tar.gz, .bz2, or .tlz) which come from a potentially untrusted source.

Backdrop core uses the third-party CKEditor library. This library has an error in parsing HTML that could lead to an XSS attack.

Update: 2021-06-11: More details are available on CKEditor's blog.